Claire mccask ill from missouri. Michael steele, former rnc chairman. Thanks for being with us. Fascinating night. The fly is in negotiation for a netflix deal, going to cover that on the business side. Our coverage now with brian williams. To Rachel Maddow and joy reid and all. Expanded debate Night Edition of the 11th hour, day 1,5 of the trump election. Only Vice President ial debate of the cycle is in the books. Mike pence and Kamala Harris faced off behind plexiglass shields 12 feet apart on a stage in Salt Lake City before a small, masked and distanced, audience. All reminders how the coronavirus continues to ravage our country uncontrolled, including at the white house where lets not forget the infected president , who had to be hospitalized, today returned to the oval office, posted a video calling his illness a blessing in disguise, talking about a cure. Tonights debate was much more civil than the one we saw last week, but this administrations response to this virus still came under heavy fire. The American People have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any president ial administration in the history of our country. From the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of america first. When you look at biden plan reads an awful lot like what President Trump and i and the task force have been doing every step of the way. And frankly when i look at their plan talks about advancing testing, creating new ppe, developing a vaccine, looks a little bit like plagiarism, which is something joe biden knows a little bit about. Keep in mind mike pence is the chair of the White House Coronavirus task force. Which in its public face exists really in title only these days. Later Kamala Harris brought up President Trumps reported nonpayment of taxes which brought a vigorous defense from the Vice President. We now know because of great investigative journalism, that donald trump paid 750 in taxes. When i first heard about it, i literally said you mean 750,000 . It was no, 750. We now know donald trump owes and is in debt for 400 million. And when we say in debt, it means you owe money to somebody and it would be really good to know who the president of the United States, the commander in chief, owes money to. The American People have a president who is a businessman, a job creator. Who has paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes. Payroll taxes, property taxes. Hes created tens of thousands of american jobs. The president said those public reports are not accurate and the president has also released literally stacks of financial disclosures. Then there was this exchange on the topic of race. This presumption that you hear consistently from joe biden and Kamala Harris that america is systemically racist and as joe biden said he believes that Law Enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities is a great insult to the men and women who serve in Law Enforcement. And i want everyone to know who puts on the uniform of Law Enforcement every day, President Trump and i stand with you. We dont have to choose between supporting Law Enforcement, improving Public Safety and supporting our africanamerican neighbors and all our minorities. I will not sit here and be lectured by the Vice President on what it means to enforce the laws of our country. Im the only one on this stage who has personally prosecuted everything from child Sexual Assault to homicide. Im the only one on the stage who has prosecuted the big banks for taking advantage of americas homeowners. Only one on the stage who prosecuted taking advantage of the veterans. And reality of this is, were talking about an election in 27 days where last week the president of the United States took a debate stage in front of 70 million americans and refused to condemn white supremacists. Otherwise tense and Meaningful Exchange from tonight during which mike pence was joined by the aforementioned fly. For our leadoff discussion on this debate night, claire mccaskill, James Carville, rose to fame with Clinton Campaign and cohost of the politics warroom podcast. Lawrence odonnell from this network and eugene robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the washington post. At the risk of going over already plowed ground, i found the personas stayed within our expectations. Mike pence played mike pence, Kamala Harris played Kamala Harris. Yeah. She was definitely kamala. I think she was she connected and was warm but in command and strong. And i do think the moments that stood out in the whole debate, besides her really showing her command of a great bit of policy across a lot of different sectors of Public Policy was health care and mismanagement of the covid crisis. I think both of those issues are very important in four weeks and i think she handled them pitch perfectly. James, tim kaine, last foreign have debated mike pence before National Audience said this about mike pence, remember the former radio talk show host, quote, he can look in a camera and deliver a line with utmost sincerity, even if he knows it to be absolutely untrue. What stood out to you tonight . I will not be lectured, senator harris said that multiple times. Women hate to be lectured by men and she drove that point home. Other thing that stood out to me, referred to Vice President biden as joe. Conscientious decision that was made. Two things that struck me again and again. And pence was a radio guy. Remember, they were being seen all the time, even when theyre not speaking, and harris was much better trained. She didnt lose her cool, smiled, took notes. Pence grimaced the whole time. Youre on 100 of the time. Radio debate she would have won 55 45. But it was Television Debate and im surprised that his people didnt train him better for that. But she really won the not speaking, visual part of that debate. Lawrence, did you concur with Nicole Wallace i found interesting instant analysis about the Vice President s low energy performance, called it flaccid. Well, you know, i dont know. Maybe only has a first gear and second gear anyway. Never really seen him running much higher speeds than that. I cant tell much about that. I do think though, as overall note, my kind of biggest global note of this event is what does it mean for donald trump, by which i mean, we saw a debate tonight, three people speaking, two reasonable and polite and one was mike pence who was mostly polite but did interrupt and do the guy thing of demanding and getting more time to speak than the woman. But compared to donald trump, mike pence is a prince of gentility. And you know, people who went through that, endured that trump debate, watching this tonight, you have to wonder are they watching this and thinking oh, it could be like this instead of the insanity, the brawling and stumbling crazy insanity that they saw at the other debate. In that sense mike pence may have done a great disservice to donald trump just by the stark contrast between the two of them in the way they handled themselves on the stage. Although without donald trump, mike pence would have been the rudest debater weve seen working this particular campaign so far. Eugene, i dont know that we are allowed to ask a Pulitzer Prize recipient to go ahead and write his column on live television, but i just did. Youve done it before, actually, brian. Youre excused. Look, i think what was in many ways notable about this debate is what didnt happen. Neither really went after the other in the way that we certainly know senator harris can. We saw her do it during the democratic debates. And mike pence certainly could have at least tried to do. But its interesting, i think there are Different Reasons for that too. If youre Kamala Harris, and the polls are showing your guy 9 1 2 points ahead or whatever the average is right now, and things are looking pretty good, you dont have to take that haymaker that might leave you exposed in some way. Can you pick your punches, you dont have to swing for the fences. But if youre mike pence, and youre looking at youre behind by nine points or so, i kind of wondered why he didnt take more chances. He didnt take very many chances during the debate. Maybe thats just not his style, but it also occurred to me that maybe hes thinking four years hence. Maybe hes thinking a little bit or almost as much about 2024 as hes thinking about 2020. James, back to you, theres going to be a lot of talk about that. Right. That would assume that a reformed Republican Party, in the event of a trump pence loss, in event of a change in power in the senate, that would assume that a reformed Republican Party would fancy mike pence at the top of their ticket four years from now. Well, i think made the point this is the first debate of the 2024 cycle. Even if Vice President one term and harris shes not going to run unopposed, going to be vigorous on the democratic side also. I thought she helped herself more for 2024 than pence helped himself. But i did view this as first debate of the 2024 primary cycle. Two of them and their two staffs probably viewed it the same way. Other thing is, how many times did susan page say thank you mr. Vice president . I think it was over 100, trying to count. Just ring in my face. They have to be conscious of 2024 because theyre sizing people up already. Hate to say it, but thats politics, always looking to the next one. Lets get more reaction from the man who is standing by to talk to us who actually played the part of mike pence during debate prep with senator harris because hes h has debated both e pence and senator harris in the past, former democratic president ial candidate Pete Buttigieg who joins from Salt Lake City. Dual question, number one, how do you think your client and friend did tonight . Number two, did you throw it all in, get it all right, leave it all on the field portraying mike pence . With are there any surprises not on your list . First of all, im so proud of Kamala Harris. She made such a powerful and direct case. Got right past the Trump Twitter noise machine to speak to the American People about what we know to be true. Vp kept trying to create this picture everything is going along fine in america and she poked right through that, explaining how the failures of this presidency led us to where we are, and doing a great job reminding us not only what were against but what this ticket is for, what joe biden and she and Democratic Administration could do to invest in infrastructure and give us a fairer economy and make sure were expanding health care. It was a command performance. As far as Vice President mike pence, i viewed it as my job to do everything i could to throw every curveball and make sure she was prepared for everything he could say. Its difficult to prepare to debate someone who is perfectly happy to Say Something thats not true in smooth, reassuring tone like its gods honest truth. Only surprise was disrespect he showed for moderator and rules. Generally he tries to be gentleman will. I dont know if thats factor of being spooked by the polls or trying to impress his boss. Theres audience of one you have to be thinking about if youre part of the trump machine. That happened more than i would have guessed. Although he does have a knack for interrupting without looking like hes interrupting. But what we saw was same effort to make it sound like everything is going great in pandemic and economic calamity. He was not able to do what he wanted to tonight, change the dynamic of the race or have a huge win. He gave a defense of the president that was loyal but i also thought a little bit lifeless. Lets go back to the point you just made and call it pencesplaining. Using certitude and piety to control his pace of speaking and manner of speaking and youre not alone. Good many people noticed that dynamic tonight. First the math, times he went over allotted times that were never seemingly paid back to Kamala Harris. But i guess im asking was it painfully obvious to you in her camp backstage watching in realtime . It was very obvious, although i should say i was in the hall. Didnt find out about this famous fly until after it was all over. But it was certainly something you couldnt escape just because he kept repeatedly running over her. And you know, it was hard not to think about the gender dynamics on the stage, and conscious that im a i found debates very challenging and i know im debating as a man and white candidate. I think its also worth mentioning that she was carrying the weight of history in a lot of ways on that stage tonight, and did it so well and so effectively. Also wanted to ask you, it appeared that trump during the debate tweeted something about our service men and women remaining in afghanistan being home by christmas. That is a meaningful thing, as no one needs to remind you, thats a big deal to loved ones of our men and women in a farflung and dangerous place like afghanistan, do you think matters military got the airing tonight they should have . Im glad there was at least a little discussion of the importance of the regard and respect that a commander in chief ought to have for those who serve. And there needed to be a moment of accountability for this president referring to our war heroes and war dead as suckers and losers for the way hes talked about prisoners of war like john mccain. She was able to deliver that and call him to account. Nothing would be better than for us to have a stable, peaceful end to the afghanistan conflict and bring folks home. Im messaging today with friends, some of whom are gearing up for another tour in the middle east and theres been coverage of kids picking up patrols that their parents served or going into conflict that their parents served. Its been 19 years, old enough to enlist and have been born after it started. Of course whenever the president says a certain thing is going to happen by a certain date, most of the time it turns out not to be true. This is one case where i hope and pray what we heard is accurate. Pete buttigieg, knowing the schedule youve been on and day youve had, thank you very much for reserving time for us at the end of your day after this event tonight. Were going to take first break. More of the special extended edition of the broadcast tonight following this Vice President ial debate with those four friends of our broadcast right after this. American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any president ial administration in the history of our country. And here are the facts 210,000 dead people in our country in just the last several months, over 7 Million People who have contracted this disease. Tracted this disease. See all those words. Put them all together and you have a story. Story. Captain, why are you doing this . Little girl is lost. Im returning her to her surviving family. Well you can certainly handle a horse. Horse. Thats right. Captain. Make no mistake. Captain. Roads closed. Is that the law . It is now. How much you want for her . Shes not for sale. The stories on these pages cant get us home. Johanna she aint worth dying for. You cant have her. And im taking her home. Its hard finding your way. You cant claim that because its inanimate [ sigh ] people ask. What sort of a person should become a celebrity accountant . And, i tell them, nobody should. Hey, buddy. Whats the damage . [ on the phone ] i bought it the waterfall . Nope my new volkswagen. A volkswagen . i think were having a breakthrough here. Welcome to caesars palace. Thank you. But despite the rising pain and anguish made worse during the pandemic, Insurance Companies still refused to cover Mental Health and addiction treatment. Until now. Senator scott wiener went to work taking them on. Passing a law requiring the Insurance Industry to cover Mental Health and addiction treatment. Now more than ever, californians need Mental Health coverage. I wont let up until the stigma of Mental Health and addiction is finally over. Trump is going to be reelected for four more years. Its not every debate you hear incumbent candidate talk about fighting a rule change in pandemic to allow universal mailin voting. Still with us, claire mccaskill, eugene robinson, James Carville, lawrence odonnell. He has to be wearing ppe, the white house is its own coronavirus hot spot, all hyperbole aside, its a clinical matter. And one of the things fascinating to me, pence will sit there